Ash Wednesday begins the Christian’s Lenten journey with a reminder of our mortality and a call to repentance.  The ancient practice of imposing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful gives Ash Wednesday its name.  The church father Tertullian (c. AD 155-220) writes of the practice as a public expression of repentance and of our human frailty that stands in need of Christ.  The ashes remind us forcefully of our need for redeeming grace as they recall words from the rite for Christian burial: “… earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust…,” words that will someday be spoken over us all.